I'm pretty sure its time to rebuild my turbo. I'm getting a small amount of oil in the cold side piping, and the shaft seems to have excessive play to me. Not sure how much play should be in it, but the impeller is not hitting the housing. As for the oil in the cold side, I've checked the oil drain to the pan, and its fine, so I know its not backing up. I recently switched to a synthetic 20w50 to bandaid my low oil pressure for now. Maybe the oil is too thick for the turbo?

 

Also, are there any special tools needed to rebuild the turbo?

 

I'd send it out to have it rebuilt. They need to be balanced which is something a pro should do.

 

Damn. Something I didn't really want to do. Can't afford the down time as this is my daily.

 

Buy a cheap used turbo or an eBay on3 unit as a spare. I believe the on3 units are the same physical size as a Magnum T70 so they should bolt right in.

Or you could even buy just an exhaust housing, make a plate that bolts to it where the CHRA is supposed to go, seal the plate to the housing with some high temp RTV, and bolt in the housing in place of a full turbo. That way you could still drive it around. You will also have to figure out how to adapt the cold piping to your air filter, or just buy a separate temporary air filter that can attach directly to your cold piping.

 

Turbos are balanced from the factory. The rebuild does not affect balancing. You should be fine if everything is torqued to spec and installed correctly.

 

I guess something I need to find out is how much shaft play is within spec. Does anyone know if 20w50 is too thick for a journal bearing turbo? I wouldn't think so, but before I switched to a heavier oil, the cold side piping was clean. Maybe its just a coincidence.

 

I do t believe u should have any shaft play. Mine doesn't

 

There will be some radial play. My new Turbonetics unit even had some, more than I thought was normal, but it's been fine. I'm guessing the oil help keeps the shaft centered.

Measure your radial play and check with Magnum to see if it's out of spec.

 

I checked with reed at works and he said between .013 and .017 radial play and .003 thrust is acceptable. I will check it tomorrow.